BALTIMORE – The head men’s lacrosse coaches Loyola University Maryland and Johns Hopkins University, Charley Toomey and Dave Pietramala, announced that the two schools will not play a regular-season game during 2015, but the series will resume in 2016.

With both programs joining new conferences over the past year – Loyola began play in the Patriot League in 2014, and Johns Hopkins will be a member of the Big Ten starting next year – the traditional late-season date on which the teams have played was not an option.

The teams will play a scrimmage at Johns Hopkins on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, and will then meet in the 2016 season in a game to be played at Loyola’s Ridley Athletic Complex.

“We are disappointed that we will not be playing during the regular-season in 2015, but we are certainly looking forward to picking back up in 2016,” said Loyola Head Coach Charley Toomey. “Playing this game on a Saturday was something that was very important to both programs, and I am pleased that we have been able to do that going forward. Our scrimmage against Johns Hopkins in 2015 is going to be a great way for our team to prepare for tough early-season games against Virginia and Penn State.”

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The qualifications made this an impossible list. We really should have split this list into two different categories. I should have never opened up the list to anyone who was from Baltimore, played at an area high school, played at a local college or played locally at the professional level. I should have instead split that group up into two categories-players from Johns Hopkins or Maryland in one group and the rest in another category altogether.

You know how tough this list was? Think about the names I ended up leaving OUTSIDE the Top 16. I’d share them with you now, but I don’t want to give away anyone who missed the list. Here goes. (Thanks to Inside Lacrosse, the Baltimore Sun, the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Loyola, Towson and UMBC for assists on info, pictures, etc.)

16. Jim Darcangelo

I’m not trying to get anything past anyone. The bottom four spots on the list are claimed by players who perhaps aren’t REALLY among the 16 greatest of all-time. But they all represent one of the area colleges who deserved to be recognized on the list. It became difficult to keep determining the NEXT greatest player in Hopkins history, so I decided to start looking elsewhere.

Darcangelo was a three time All-American as a midfielder for Towson, helping the Tigers claim the 1974 College Division National Championship. He was twice recognized as the Division II/III Player of the Year during his Towson career and went on to play for Team USA in three World Championships.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – On a day when he tied legendary coach Bob Scott’s record for career coaching wins at Johns Hopkins, men’s lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala acknowledged in the post-game press conference after Sunday’s 14-8 Blue Jay victory against Virginia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament that the start of the game wasn’t surprising. A two-goal spurt by the Cavaliers to open the game – a surge that saw the Cavaliers fire off shot after shot against the Blue Jays – was followed by a Pietramala-called timeout.

When asked what he said in the timeout, he responded with a simple response; “Relax.”

It was less than a minute later when senior Brandon Benn intercepted a Matt Barrett outlet pass at midfield and fired one home from 35 yards. After the hot start by the Cavaliers, it was just what the Blue Jays needed, and they capitalized on the deep breath they were able to take after Benn’s goal – and proceeded to score seven more before Virginia would score again.

By then, Hopkins had scored on half of the 16 shots it had fired on Barrett, including three by Benn and two by juniorWells Stanwick, to open an 8-2 lead midway through the second quarter.

For all the talk about the quick-strike Virginia offense, it was Hopkins that scored in bunches to craft what eventually became a 9-5 halftime lead.

The early two-goal deficit was a distant memory after Benn’s goal was followed by a nice finish inside by Ryan Brown, a nifty finish by senior Kevin Interlicchio and the first of Stanwick’s career-high-tying five goals before the end of the first quarter.

The 4-2 Blue Jay lead swelled to 8-2 in less than seven minutes of the second quarter. Two more strikes by Benn, the second career goal by senior Jack Reilly and another by Stanwick accounted for the final four goals in the 8-0 run, which gave Johns Hopkins the stunning six-goal lead.

Virginia, a team known for making runs of its own, had the six-goal lead trimmed to four in a span of seven seconds as a Ryan Tucker laser at the 6:59 mark of the second quarter was followed by a Joe Lisicky goal off the ensuing faceoff to make it 8-4.

A Connor Reed goal off an ally dodge was matched by a Pat Harbeson strike in the final 4:28 of the first half to account for the 9-5 Blue Jay lead at the half.

As they did in the first half, the Cavaliers came out firing in the third quarter and it was 9:31 into the period when what was once a six-goal lead was down to one. An Owen Van Arsdale goal from the wing less than five minutes into the half was followed by Zed Williams and Tyler German tallies midway though the period to make it a 9-8 game with more than 20 minutes remaining in the game.

The next goal, either a Virginia tally to knot the game or a Blue Jay strike to stem the tide, would be crucial. As it turned out, the more than 2,000 fans in attendance and the live national television audience on ESPN2, didn’t have to wait long, just 11 seconds, to see who would get that crucial goal.

Senior Rob Guida scooped up the ground ball off the faceoff following German’s goal and sprinted into the offensive end, where he found Stanwick all alone 12 yards out to Barrett’s right. Stanwick didn’t hesitate when he took Guida’s feed and blew one home. The most important goal of the game belonged to Johns Hopkins.

Stanwick’s goal ignited what eventually became a 5-0 game-ending run for Johns Hopkins. Benn completed his four-goal day when he got just enough separation in the high slot and polished off a long possession at the 10:52 mark. When Holden Cattoni ripped a shot past Barrett from the wing at the 7:05 mark, the Cavaliers were down 12-8 and were forced to chase. Stanwick made them pay – twice – down the stretch with his fourth and fifth goals to seal Hopkins’ largest margin of victory at Virginia since 1984 (16-9).

Stanwick matched his career-high and the Johns Hopkins record for most goals in a first round game with his five, while he, Benn and Brown – Johns Hopkins’ starting attack – combined for 10 goals and one assist. Conversely, the Blue Jay defense held Virginia’s starting attack unit to three goals and three assists and its first midfield to just one goal on 18 shots. Half of the six points accumulated by UVA’s starting attack came before the game was five minutes old.

The Johns Hopkins defense was paced by Schneider’s 12 saves, five of which came in the first quarter and four in the fourth. He backboned a unit that held the Cavaliers scoreless for more than 18 minutes at one point in the first half and more than 20 minutes to close the game.

Helping the Blue Jays go on those extended runs was senior Drew Kennedy, who went 14-of-26 on faceoffs and grabbed 10 ground balls for Johns Hopkins.

Cockerton (2g, 1a) and Van Arsdale (1g, 2a) were the only multi-point producers for Virginia, which got 10 saves from Barrett and a 12-for-25 effort on faceoffs from Mick Parks.

The win was the 158th for Pietramala as the head coach at Johns Hopkins. That matches Scott’s record, which was accumulated from 1955-74 and had stood unchallenged for 40 years.

Johns Hopkins will take on defending national champion Duke in the quarterfinals next Sunday at Delaware. The Blue Devils topped Air Force, 20-9, this afternoon.

Notes: Stanwick tied the JHU record for most goals in a first round NCAA game … Benn (Stony Brook-2012) and Chris Boland (Brown-2009) also scored five goals in a first-round game • Benn’s four goals give him 108 in his career, which moves him into ninth place on JHU’s career goal-scoring list • Stanwick’s assist was his 41st of the year, which ties him with Jack Thomas (1972) for the fifth-highest single-season total in school history • Stanwick’s 63 points this season are the most by a Johns Hopkins player since Dan Denihan had 65 in 2000 • Today’s game was the 100th NCAA Tournament game in Johns Hopkins history … the Blue Jays improved to 68-32 all-time in NCAA play • The Johns Hopkins defense has npw held the opposition scoreless for 15 minutes or longer 15 different times this season.

The Game: Johns Hopkins (10-3) makes the short trip up University Parkway to Cold Spring Lane and the Ridley Athletic Complex to take on top-ranked Loyola (14-1) in the regular season finale for both teams. Faceoff is set for noon with a live national television audience on CBS Sports Network.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins ran its winning streak to five games with a 13-7 victory at home against Villanova last Wednesday night.
Loyola ran its winning streak to 14 games with a pair of victories over the weekend in the Patriot League Tournament, including a dominating 16-7 victory over Lehigh in the championship game.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Loyola are meeting for the 52nd time in a series that dates to 20-1 Johns Hopkins victory in 1939. The Greyhounds topped the Blue Jays 8-4 last season at Homewood Field to snap a 13-game Johns Hopkins winning streak in the series.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Loyola with an all-time record of 943-306-15 (.753). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked sixth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and sixth in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Loyola is ranked first in both the coaches and media polls this week.

Tournament Talk: The bracket for the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Tournament will be announced on Sunday, May 4 at 9 pm on ESPNU. The 18-team field will consist of 10 automatic qualifiers (league champions) and eight at-large berths.

The four lowest-ranked automatic qualifying teams as determined by the committee, regardless of conference RPI, will compete in two play-in games to determine the final two AQ spots in the championship bracket.

The tournament will begin with the two play-in games on Wednesday, May 7 with eight first-round games taking place on the campus of the eight highest seeded teams on Saturday and Sunday, May 10&11.

Closing on Mr. Scott: Dave Pietramala picked up his 157th victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with the 13-7 victory against Villanova and he continues to close in on the record for most career coaching victories at Homewood. Only Bob Scott, who won 158 games as the head coach at JHU from 1955-74, has won or coached (214) more games than Pietramala at Johns Hopkins.

Career Win Number 180: In addition to his 157-53 (.748) mark as the head coach at JHU, Dave Pietramala also posted a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell and now boasts an overall record of 180-70 (.720). Pietramala’s 180 wins rank 10th among active Division I coaches.

Career Game Number 250: Last week’s game against Villanova was the 250th for Dave Pietramala as a head coach at the collegiate level.

New Blue: The Johns Hopkins lineup features six new starters after a large senior class departed Homewood last spring. The six are spread throughout the lineup and include Eric Schneider (G), Rob Enright (D), John Kelly (D), Holden Cattoni(M), Connor Reed (M) and Ryan Brown (A). Brown did start four games at midfield last season, but made the move to his natural attack position this season, and Enright had five career starts through his first two seasons.

New Blue II: In addition to the six new starters in the lineup, the overall Blue Jay roster is also vastly different than a year ago. Gone are 11 seniors who exhausted their eligibility and in their place are 17 freshmen.

Youth Will be Served: Johns Hopkins is fielding one of the youngest rosters in the nation this season as 17 of the team’s 49 players are freshmen and 29 are either freshmen or sophomores. Only nine of the 49 are seniors and two of those nine – Eric Schneider and Phil Castronova – have an extra year of eligibility and are planning to return for the 2015 season.

For Starters: Entering the 2014 season, the entire 49-man Johns Hopkins roster counted a total of 132 combined career starts to its credit. Of those 132, Rob Guida (38), Jack Reilly (30), Brandon Benn (29) and Wells Stanwick (17) accounted 114, or 86.7%. No other returning player had started more than five games for the Blue Jays. By contrast, last year’s 11-man senior class graduated with a combined 321 starts with six of those 11 players earning 45 or more starts during their careers.

An Offensive Group: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Loyola averaging 12.15 goals per game and the Blue Jays have scored at least 10 goals in all but two games this season. Entering the game against Greyhounds, JHU ranks 10th in the nation in scoring offense, eighth in assists per game (7.54) and 10th in points per game (19.69).

Sharing the Ball: An effective part of the Blue Jay offense this season has been the ability to move the ball and that has shown up in the percentage of the team’s goals that have been assisted thus far. Through 13 games, 98 of JHU’s 158 goals have been assisted, or 62.0%. Only three times since 2003 has Johns Hopkins finished a season with more than 60% of its goals being assisted. The 2003 team assisted on 67.4% of its goals, while the 2004 (64.3%) and 2009 (62.4%) teams also eclipsed the 60% mark.

Extra, Extra: Johns Hopkins converted on a pair of extra-man opportunities against Villanova and is now 25-of-48 (.521) for the year. The Blue Jays rank fifth in the nation in extra-man offense heading into the Loyola game. Brandon Benn (7 EMO goals), Holden Cattoni (6), Ryan Brown (5) and Wells Stanwick (5) have combined to score 23 of JHU’s 25 EMO goals this season.

Kennedy, Faceoff Unit Shine: Behind the efforts of junior Drew Kennedy, Johns Hopkins ranks eighth in the nation in faceoff winning percentage entering this week’s game against Loyola. On the year, the Blue Jays have won 185-of-308 (.601) as a team.
For his part, Kennedy has been a workhorse as he is 160-of-259 (.618) through 13 games and also has a team-high 114 ground balls thus far. He ranks among the national leaders in faceoff winning percentage (10th) and ground balls per game (8th / 8.77).

Holding Them Down: The Blue Jays have held the opposition scoreless for long stretches at key points this season. The 13 teams Johns Hopkins has played thus far have 19 scoreless droughts of 11 minutes or longer and 13 of 15 minutes or longer. JHU held Maryland scoreless for stretches of 20:11 to open the game and 18:52 immediately after the Terps scored their first goal and then held Mount St. Mary’s off the board for 44:56 to open the game.

More Holding: Johns Hopkins has held each of its 13 opponents under its season scoring average thus far. Recently, the Blue Jays held Albany to just eight goals (just over half of what the Great Danes entered the game averaging) and Maryland to just six goals (less than half the Terps’ average entering the game). In all, JHU has held 10 of its 13 opponents to nine goals or less.

A Final Holding: During its current five-game winning streak, the Johns Hopkins defense has allowed a total of just 10 first-half goals.

Schneider Rolling: A key part of the recent surge by the Blue Jay defense has been the play of senior goalie Eric Schneider, who has gotten hot as the weather has gotten better. In the five-game unbeaten streak, Schneider has played 285 of the team’s 300 minutes and boasts a 5.68 GAA and a .654 save percentage over that time. With his recent performances, which include a 17-save performance at Navy, Schneider now has a 7.78 GAA and .573 save percentage on the year. He ranks sixth in the nation in GAA and ninth in save percentage and is one of just six goalies in the nation ranked in the top 10 in both categories.

Attack Driven: Johns Hopkins’ starting attack unit of senior Brandon Benn, junior Wells Stanwick and sophomore Ryan Brown is being counted on to lead the way offensively for the Blue Jays this season and the trio has been up to the task thus far. They have combined for at least three goals and seven points in all 13 games this season, with 11 goals against UMBC and nine goals against both Towson and Princeton. The trio has a pair of 16-point games to its credit (Towosn, UMBC) and a 14-point effort as well (Princeton). The three started the first 10 games together before Brown sat out the game at Mount St. Mary’s.

Welcome to the Club: Senior Brandon Benn became the 17th player in school history to reach the 100-goal mark with his four-goal effort at Navy. Benn is now tied for 12th with Mike Morrill (1985-88) on JHU’s career goal-scoring list with 102.

Another Welcome: Brandon Benn’s four goals against Navy pushed his total for the season past 30 goals (he now has 33). This marks the third consecutive season he has scored 30+ goals, making him the first Johns Hopkins player since Terry Riordan (1992-95) to score 30 or more goals in three straight seasons. Riordan scored more than 30 goals in each of his four seasons (only player in school history to do that).

In Overtime: With the 11-10 loss at Virginia, Johns Hopkins is now 20-11 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala; this includes the 10-9 triple overtime victory against Ohio State in the season opener. The Blue Jays have won four of their last six overtime games dating back to late in the 2011 season.

State Rivalries: Johns Hopkins improved its record to 66-8 (.892) under head coach Dave Pietramala in games played against teams from the state of Maryland with the 6-5 victory at Navy. Below is a breakdown of JHU’s record against teams from Maryland under Pietramala.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked sixth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

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The Game: Johns Hopkins (6-3) welcomes long-time rival Maryland (9-1) to Homewood Field for the 111th meeting in the greatest rivalry in college lacrosse. Faceoff is set for 2 pm with a capacity Homecoming crowd expected.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins snapped a three-game losing streak with a 13-8 victory against Albany last Friday night at Homewood Field.
Maryland didn’t play last weekend as the Terps had the weekend off. UM enters this week’s game with a two-game winning streak after topping Robert Morris, 19-6, in its last game on April 2.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Maryalnd renew the greatest rivalry in college lacrosse for the 111th time this weekend. JHU leads the all-time series 69-40-1 after last season’s 7-4 win at then top-ranked Maryland last season.
Close games have been the norm of late in the head-to-head matchup as three of last five have been decided by a goal and the last five games have been decided by a total of nine goals.
As might be expected in a rivalry like this, rankings haven’t always predicted the winner. The higher-ranked team has won 32 of the 53 since 1973, but the lower-ranked team has won 12 of the last 22. Including last season’s win at then top-ranked Maryland, Johns Hopkins is 13-7 against Maryland when entering the game against the Terrapins as the lower-ranked team. Currently, JHU has won nine of the last 12 when entering the game ranked lower than the Terps.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Maryland with an all-time record of 939-306-15 (.751). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked ninth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and eighth in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Maryland enters this week’s game against Johns Hopkins ranked third in the coaches poll and third in the media poll.

Closing on Mr. Scott: Dave Pietramala picked up his 153rd victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with the 13-8 victory against Albany and he continues to close in on the record for most career coaching victories at Homewood. Only Bob Scott, who won 158 games as the head coach at JHU from 1955-74, has won or coached (214) more games than Pietramala at Johns Hopkins.

Career Win Number 176: In addition to his 153-53 (.743) mark as the head coach at JHU, Dave Pietramala also postd a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell and now boasts an overall record of 176-70 (.715). Pietramala’s 176 wins rank 10th among active Division I coaches.

New Blue: The Johns Hopkins lineup features six new starters after a large senior class departed Homewood last spring. The six are spread throughout the lineup and include Eric Schneider (G), Rob Enright (D), John Kelly (D), Holden Cattoni(M), Connor Reed (M) and Ryan Brown (A). Brown did start four games at midfield last season, but made the move to his natural attack position this season, and Enright had five career starts through his first two seasons.

New Blue II: In addition to the six new starters in the lineup, the overall Blue Jay roster is also vastly different than a year ago. Gone are 11 seniors who exhausted their eligibility and in their place are 17 freshmen.

Youth Will be Served: Johns Hopkins is fielding one of the youngest rosters in the nation this season as 17 of the team’s 49 players are freshmen and 29 are either freshmen or sophomores. Only nine of the 49 are seniors and two of those nine – Eric Schneider and Phil Castronova – have an extra year of eligibility and are planning to return for the 2015 season.

For Starters: Entering the 2014 season, the entire 49-man Johns Hopkins roster counted a total of 132 combined career starts to its credit. Of those 132, Rob Guida (38), Jack Reilly (30), Brandon Benn (29) and Wells Stanwick (17) accounted 114, or 86.7%. No other returning player had started more than five games for the Blue Jays. By contrast, last year’s 11-man senior class graduated with a combined 321 starts with six of those 11 players earning 45 or more starts during their careers.

An Offensive Group: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Maryland averaging 12.33 goals per game and the Blue Jays have scored at least 10 goals in all but one game this season. JHU ranks 11th in the nation in scoring offense, second in assists per game (8.11) and eighth in points per game (20.44).

Class Rank: The Blue Jays have gotten production from each of their four classes through nine games. Each class has registered at least 15 points thus far, with the sophomore (74 points), senior (48) and junior (47 points) classes leading the way.

Sharing the Ball: An effective part of the Blue Jay offense this season has been the ability to move the ball and that has shown up in the percentage of the team’s goals that have been assisted thus far. Through nine games, 73 of JHU’s 111 goals have been assisted, or 65.8%. Only three times since 2003 has Johns Hopkins finished a season with more than 60% of its goals being assisted. The 2003 team assisted on 67.4% of its goals, while the 2004 (64.3%) and 2009 (62.4%) teams also eclipsed the 60% mark.

Something Special Going On: An area of emphasis for all lacrosse coaches in practice are the specialty units of extra-man offense, man-down defense and faceoffs and the Blue Jays have been excelling in all three areas this season. Below is a quick look at each unit through nine games:

Extra, Extra: Johns Hopkins converted on all three of its extra-man opportunities last week against Albany and is now 16-of-29 (.552) for the year. The Blue Jays rank third in the nation in extra-man offense with Brandon Benn (5 EMO goals), Holden Cattoni (5) and Ryan Brown (4) leading the way.

Man-Down Unit Excelling: With a lot of the focus on JHU’s offense this season, it’s easy to overlook the performance of the man-down unit, which has killed off 13-of-19 (.684) chances this season. The Blue Jays rank 23rd in the nation in man-down defense this season after finishing 11th a year ago.

Kennedy, Faceoff Unit Shines: Behind the efforts of junior Drew Kennedy, Johns Hopkins ranks third in the nation in faceoff winning percentage (144-of-227 / .634). For his part, Kennedy has been a workhorse as he is 139-of-211 (.659) through nine games and also has a team-high 95 ground balls thus far. He ranks fourth in the nation in faceoff winning percentage and third in ground balls per game (10.56) after winning 21-of-25 faceoffs with 15 ground balls against Syracuse, following that with a 16-of-25 performance with 11 ground balls at Virginia and capping a three-week run against top 10 teams with a 20-of-26 showing with 13 GBs against North Carolina. The 21 faceoff wins and 15 ground balls against the Orange are both career highs.
In his last five games, Kennedy is 85-of-126 (.675) with 58 ground balls and has won at least 16 faceoffs and grabbed 11 ground balls in four of the five games. Holding Them Down: The Blue Jays have held the opposition scoreless for long stretches at key points this season. The nine teams Johns Hopkins has played thus far have 11 scoreless droughts of 11 minutes or longer and eight of 15 minutes or longer.

More Holding Them Down: Johns Hopkins has held each of its nine opponents under its season scoring average (current average) thus far. The Blue Jays held Albany to just eight goals, just over half of what the Great Danes entered the game averaging. In all, JHU has held six of its nine opponents to nine goals or less.

Attack Driven: Johns Hopkins’ starting attack unit of senior Brandon Benn, junior Wells Stanwick and sophomore Ryan Brown is being counted on to lead the way offensively for the Blue Jays this season and the trio has been up to the task thus far. They have combined for at least four goals and seven points in all nine games this season, with 11 goals against UMBC and nine goals against both Towson and Princeton. The trio has a pair of 16-point games to its credit (Towosn, UMBC) and a 14-point effort as well (Princeton).

Second-Longest Game in School History: The triple overtime game against Ohio State in the season-opener ranks as the second-longest game in the history of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse program. The longest game in school history was a four-overtime game against Virginia on March 24, 2001.

In Overtime: With the 11-10 loss at Virginia, Johns Hopkins is now 20-11 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala; this includes the 10-9 triple overtime victory against Ohio State in the season opener. The Blue Jays have won four of their last six overtime games dating back to late in the 2011 season.

State Rivalries: Johns Hopkins improved its record to 63-8 (.887) under head coach Dave Pietramala in games played against teams from the state of Maryland with the recent 15-8 victory against UMBC.
Including the game against the Retrievers, the Blue Jays will play six games this season against in-state rivals.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked ninth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

Mount St. Mary’s Game Rescheduled: The Johns Hopkins-Mount St. Mary’s game, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday, March 4 in Emmitsburg, was postponed due to unplayable field conditions after a winter storm blew through Maryland on March 3. The game against the Mountaineers has been rescheduled for Monday, April 14 at 4 pm (at Mount St. Mary’s).

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The Game: Johns Hopkins (5-1) heads to the University of Virginia (6-2) for a key top-10 battle with the Cavaliers. Faceoff is set for 4:30 pm with a live national television broadcast on ESPNU.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins slipped from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 12-10 loss to Syracuse at Homewood Field last Saturday.
Virginia dropped its second straight as the Cavaliers fell at Notre Dame, 18-9 on Sunday.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Virginia are meeting for the 87th time in a series that dates to a 9-0 Johns Hopkins victory in 1904. The Blue Jays have currently won three straight against the Cavaliers, including an 11-10 win in 2012 in JHU’s last trip to Charlottesville.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Virginia with an all-time record of 938-304-15 (.752). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked ninth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and eighth in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll as well. Virginia enters this week’s game against Johns Hopkins ranked 10th in the coaches poll and 10th in the media poll.

Playing for the Cup: The winner of this week’s game between Johns Hopkins and Virginia will be presented with the Doyle Smith Cup, which goes to the winner of the annual regular season game between the two teams.
Doyle Smith arrived at Johns Hopkins from Corvallis, Oregon in 1962 and served as the manager of the lacrosse team throughout his tenure at Homewood. He graduated from Johns Hopkins Phi Beta Kappa and worked under the guidance of Hall of Fame coach Bob Scott before moving to the University of Virginia, where he served as the Director of Media Relations for the men’s lacrosse program for 30 years.
Doyle’s devotion to the sport of men’s lacrosse was remarkable. He served as the information director for the USILA for many years and was the official statistician at the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships for over two decades. He also was responsible for the standardization and accuracy of men’s lacrosse statistics and became the face and voice of the USILA during his time at Virginia. In 2000, he became the first non-player, non-coach to be inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
By a joint acclimation between Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia, it was established during the 2006 season that the regular-season game contested between the Blue Jays and the Cavaliers be known as the game for the Doyle Smith Cup.

Closing on Mr. Scott: Dave Pietramala picked up his 152nd victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with the recent 15-8 victory at UMBC and he continues to close in on the record for most career coaching victories at Homewood. Only Bob Scott, who won 158 games as the head coach at JHU from 1955-74, has won or coached (214) more games than Pietramala at Johns Hopkins.

Career Win Number 175: In addition to notching his 152nd victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with the win against UMBC, Dave Pietramala also reached a milestone as the win against the Retrievers was the 175th of his coaching career. In addition to his 152-51 (.749) mark as the head coach at JHU, Pietramala also postd a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell and now boasts an overall record of 175-68 (.720). Pietramala’s 175 wins rank 10th among active Division I coaches.

New Blue: The Johns Hopkins lineup features six new starters after a large senior class departed Homewood last spring. The six are spread throughout the lineup and include Eric Schneider (G), Rob Enright (D), John Kelly (D), Bronson Kelly(M), Connor Reed (M) and Ryan Brown (A). Brown did start four games at midfield last season, but made the move to his natural attack position this season, and Enright had five career starts through his first two seasons.

New Blue II: In addition to the six new starters in the lineup, the overall Blue Jay roster is also vastly different than a year ago. Gone are 11 seniors who exhausted their eligibility and in their place are 17 freshmen.

Youth Will be Served: Johns Hopkins is fielding one of the youngest rosters in the nation this season as 17 of the team’s 49 players are freshmen and 29 are either freshmen or sophomores. Only nine of the 49 are seniors and two of those nine – Eric Schneider and Phil Castronova – have an extra year of eligibility and are planning to return for the 2015 season.

For Starters: Entering the 2014 season, the entire 49-man Johns Hopkins roster counted a total of 132 combined career starts to its credit. Of those 132, Rob Guida (38), Jack Reilly (30), Brandon Benn (29) and Wells Stanwick (17) accounted 114, or 86.7%. No other returning player had started more than five games for the Blue Jays. By contrast, last year’s 11-man senior class graduated with a combined 321 starts with six of those 11 players earning 45 or more starts during their careers.

An Offensive Group: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Virginia averaging 13.17 goals per game and the Blue Jays have scored at least 10 goals in every game this season. JHU ranks ninth in the nation in scoring offense, third in assists per game (8.17) and fifth in points per game (21.33).

Class Rank: The Blue Jays have gotten production from each of their four classes through six games. Each class has registered at least 11 points thus far, with the sophomore (52 points), junior (34 points) and senior (31 points) classes leading the way.

Must be the Speech: There must be something about the speech that head coach Dave Pietramala gives before the Blue Jays take the field at the start of the game and at halftime. For the year, Johns Hopkins holds a 22-13 scoring advantage in the first quarter and a 25-14 scoring margin in the third quarter. In the second and fourth quarters, JHU is a combined +7 in scoring margin (31-24).

Schneider, Defense Growing: While the offense has grabbed a majority of the headlines this season, the Blue Jay defense has been consistent thus far as well. Johns Hopkins is currently ranked 13th in the nation in scoring defense (8.5) and has held five of its six opponents to nine goals or less. Eric Schneider continues to impress in goal as he sports an 8.10 goals against average and a .581 save percentage.

Attack Driven: Johns Hopkins’ starting attack unit of senior Brandon Benn, junior Wells Stanwick and sophomore Ryan Brown will be counted on to lead the way offensively for the Blue Jays this season and the trio has been up to the task thus far. They have combined for at least four goals and nine points in all six games this season, with 11 goals against UMBC and nine goals against both Towson and Princeton. The trio has a pair of 16-point games to its credit (Towosn, UMBC) and a 14-point effort as well (Princeton).

Kennedy Shines: Junior faceoff specialist Drew Kennedy continues to enjoy a standout season for the Blue Jays as he is 93-of-136 (.684) through six games and also has a team-high 64 ground balls thus far. He ranks third in the nation in faceoff winning percentage and first in ground balls per game (10.67) after winning 21-of-25 faceoffs with 15 ground balls in last week’s game against Syracuse. The 21 faceoff wins and 15 ground balls are both career highs. Kennedy won 18-of-22 (.818) faceoffs in the season opener against Ohio State and came back and won 16-of-23 with 10 ground balls against Towson. After winning just 1-of-6 in the first quarter, he was 15-of-17 over the final three quarters against the Tigers.

Second-Longest Game in School History: The triple overtime game against Ohio State in the season-opener ranks as the second-longest game in the history of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse program. The longest game in school history was a four-overtime game against Virginia on March 24, 2001.

In Overtime: Johns Hopkins improved to 20-10 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala with the 10-9 triple overtime victory against Ohio State. The Blue Jays have now won four of their last five overtime games dating back to late in the 2011 season.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked ninth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

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The Game: Johns Hopkins (5-0) returns home and welcomes Syracuse (3-2) to Homewood Field for a nationally-televised game against the Orange.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins improved to 5-0 on the year with a 15-8 victory at UMBC last Saturday.
Syracuse moved its record to 3-2 on the year with a 14-8 victory against St. John’s. The win over the Red Storm snapped a two-game losing streak for the Orange.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Syracuse are meeting for the 52nd time in a series that dates to a meeting in 1921 that ended in a 4-4 tie. Johns Hopkins leads the all-time series 27-23-1, although Syracuse has won six of the last seven meetings.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Syracuse with an all-time record of 938-303-15 (.753). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked second in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and third in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Syracuse enters this week’s game at Johns Hopkins ranked 10th in the coaches poll and 10th in the media poll.

Closing on Mr. Scott: Dave Pietramala picked up his 152nd victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with last week’s 15-8 victory at UMBC and he continues to close in on the record for most career coaching victories at Homewood. Only Bob Scott, who won 158 games as the head coach at JHU from 1955-74, has won or coached (214) more games than Pietramala at Johns Hopkins.

Career Win Number 175: In addition to notching his 152nd victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with last week’s win against UMBC, Dave Pietramala also reached a milestone as the win against the Retrievers was the 175th of his coaching career. In addition to his 152-50 (.752) mark as the head coach at JHU, Pietramala also postd a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell and now boasts an overall record of 175-67 (.723). Pietramala’s 175 wins rank 10th among active Division I coaches.

About 5-0: Johns Hopkins is 5-0 for the second time in three years and the fourth time under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays previously started 5-0 under Pietramala in 2004, 2005 and 2012. The 2004 team dropped its sixth game (9-8 in overtime at Virginia), while the 2005 and 2012 teams both won their sixth games. The 2005 team went on to finish 16-0, while the 2012 team eventually moved to 8-0 before suffering its first loss.

New Blue: The Johns Hopkins lineup features six new starters after a large senior class departed Homewood last spring. The six are spread throughout the lineup and include Eric Schneider (G), Rob Enright (D), John Kelly (D), Bronson Kelly(M), Connor Reed (M) and Ryan Brown (A). Brown did start four games at midfield last season, but made the move to his natural attack position this season, and Enright had five career starts through his first two seasons.

New Blue II: In addition to the six new starters in the lineup, the overall Blue Jay roster is also vastly different than a year ago. Gone are 11 seniors who exhausted their eligibility and in their place are 17 freshmen.

Youth Will be Served: Johns Hopkins is fielding one of the youngest rosters in the nation this season as 17 of the team’s 49 players are freshmen and 29 are either freshmen or sophomores. Only nine of the 49 are seniors and two of those nine – Eric Schneider and Phil Castronova – have an extra year of eligibility and are planning to return for the 2015 season.

For Starters: Entering the 2014 season, the entire 49-man Johns Hopkins roster counted a total of 132 combined career starts to its credit. Of those 132, Rob Guida (38), Jack Reilly (30), Brandon Benn (29) and Wells Stanwick (17) accounted 114, or 86.7%. No other returning player had started more than five games for the Blue Jays. By contrast, last year’s 11-man senior class graduated with a combined 321 starts with six of those 11 players earning 45 or more starts during their careers.

An Offensive Group: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Syracuse averaging 13.8 goals per game and the Blue Jays have scored 14 or more goals in each of their last four games. JHU ranks eighth in the nation in scoring offense and has scored 14 or more goals in four straight games for the first time since 2003, when the Blue Jays scored 14+ in seven straight games late in the season. Ironically, a key member of that 2003 offense was current offensive coordinator Bobby Benson, who led the team in goals with 41 that season.

Must be the Speech: There must be something about the speech that head coach Dave Pietramala gives before the Blue Jays take the field at the start of the game and at halftime. For the year, Johns Hopkins holds a 21-10 scoring advantage in the first quarter and a 22-11 scoring margin in the third quarter. In the second and fourth quarters, JHU is a combined +7 in scoring margin (25-18).

Schneider, Defense Growing: While the offense has grabbed a majority of the headlines this season, the Blue Jay defense has been consistent thus far as well. Johns Hopkins is currently tied for eighth in the nation in scoring defense and has held all five of its opponents to nine goals or less. Eric Schneider continues to impress in goal as he sports a 7.33 goals against average and a .622 save percentage.

Attack Driven: Johns Hopkins’ starting attack unit of senior Brandon Benn, junior Wells Stanwick and sophomore Ryan Brown will be counted on to lead the way offensively for the Blue Jays this season and the trio has been up to the task thus far. They have combined for at least four goals and nine points in all five games this season, with 11 goals against UMBC and nine goals against both Towson and Princeton. The trio has a pair of 16-point games to its credit (Towosn, UMBC) and a 14-point effort as well (Princeton). Kennedy Shines: Junior Drew Kennedy has gotten off to a quick start at the X for the Blue Jays as he is 72-of-111 (.649) through five games and also has a team-high 49 ground balls thus far. He ranks fourth in the nation in faceoff winning percentage and tied for first in ground balls per game (9.8) after winning 18-of-26 faceoffs with 12 ground balls in last week’s win against UMBC.
Kennedy won 18-of-22 (.818) faceoffs in the season opener against Ohio State and came back and won 16-of-23 with 10 ground balls against Towson. After winning just 1-of-6 in the first quarter, he was 15-of-17 over the final three quarters against the Tigers.

Second-Longest Game in School History: The triple overtime game against Ohio State in the season-opener ranks as the second-longest game in the history of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse program. The longest game in school history was a four-overtime game against Virginia on March 24, 2001.

In Overtime: Johns Hopkins improved to 20-10 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala with the 10-9 triple overtime victory against Ohio State. The Blue Jays have now won four of their last five overtime games dating back to late in the 2011 season.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked second in this week’s USILA Preseason Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

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The Game: Johns Hopkins makes a quick turnaround from its game at Princeton on Saturday as the Blue Jays make the short trip to Emmitsburg, Maryland to take on Mount St. Mary’s. Faceoff from Waldron Family Stadium is set for 4 pm.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins made it four straight in the win column to open the season as the Blue Jays topped Princeton, 15-9, on the road last Saturday. Mount St. Mary’s slipped to 0-5 on the year with a 9-1 loss at Towson on Saturday.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Mount St. Mary’s are meeting for the sixth time in a series that dates to a 19-6 Johns Hopkins victory in 2006. The Blue Jays have won each of the five previous meetings, including a 15-3 victory in 2007 in JHU’s only other trip to Mount St. Mary’s.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game at Mount St. Mary’s with an all-time record of 937-303-15 (.753). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked third in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and fourth in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Mount St. Mary’s is not ranked in either poll.

Closing on Mr. Scott: Dave Pietramala picked up his 151st victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with last week’s 15-9 victory at Princeton and he continues to close in on the record for most career coaching victories at Homewood. Only Bob Scott, who won 158 games as the head coach at JHU from 1955-74, has won or coached (214) more games than Pietramala at Johns Hopkins.

About 4-0: Johns Hopkins is 4-0 for the second time in three years and the fourth time under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays previously started 4-0 under Pietramala in 2004, 2005 and 2012.

New Blue: The Johns Hopkins lineup features six new starters after a large senior class departed Homewood last spring. The six are spread throughout the lineup and include Eric Schneider (G), Rob Enright (D), John Kelly (D), Bronson Kelly(M), Connor Reed (M) and Ryan Brown (A). Brown did start four games at midfield last season, but made the move to his natural attack position this season, and Enright had five career starts through his first two seasons.

New Blue II: In addition to the six new starters in the lineup, the overall Blue Jay roster is also vastly different than a year ago. Gone are 11 seniors who exhausted their eligibility and in their place are 17 freshmen.

Youth Will be Served: Johns Hopkins is fielding one of the youngest rosters in the nation this season as 17 of the team’s 49 players are freshmen and 29 are either freshmen or sophomores. Only nine of the 49 are seniors and two of those nine – Eric Schneider and Phil Castronova – have an extra year of eligibility and are planning to return for the 2015 season.

For Starters: Entering the 2014 season, the entire 49-man Johns Hopkins roster counted a total of 132 combined career starts to its credit. Of those 132, Rob Guida (38), Jack Reilly (30), Brandon Benn (29) and Wells Stanwick (17) accounted 114, or 86.7%. No other returning player had started more than five games for the Blue Jays. By contrast, last year’s 11-man senior class graduated with a combined 321 starts with six of those 11 players earning 45 or more starts during their careers.

Class Rank: The Blue Jays have gotten balanced production from each of their four classes through four games. Each class has registered at least nine points thus far, with the sophomore (32 points) and junior (26 points) classes leading the way. All four classes have produced at least nine goals through four games.

Must be the Speech: There must be something about the speech that head coach Dave Pietramala gives at halftime that is sparking the Blue Jays. Johns Hopkins was tied with Ohio State at the half (2-2) and led Towson by one (6-5), but the Blue Jays outscored the Buckeyes 6-3 in the third quarter and took that up a notch against the Tigers by outscoring TU 7-1 to put the game away. For the year, Johns Hopkins holds a 20-9 scoring margin in the third quarter. In the first, second and four quarters, JHU is a combined +11 in scoring margin (33-22).

Kennedy Shines: Junior Drew Kennedy has gotten off to a quick start at the X for the Blue Jays as he is 54-of-85 (.635) through four games and also has a team-high 37 ground balls thus far. He ranks ninth in the nation in faceoff winning percentage and sixth in ground balls per game (9.25).
Despite missing most of the preseason, Kennedy suited up and fueled Johns Hopkins’ win against Ohio State with a dominating performance as he was 18-of-22 (.818) and grabbed 13 ground balls in the victory. The 18 faceoff wins and 13 GBs are career highs. In addition, Kennedy’s 18 faceoff wins are the most by a Johns Hopkins player since Mike Poppleton won 20 (of 26) against Stony Brook in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
He came back and won 16-of-23 with 10 ground balls against Towson. After winning just 1-of-6 in the first quarter, he was 15-of-17 over the final three quarters against the Tigers.

Crawley Quick Out of the Gate: Freshman John Crawley scored a key goal in the season opener against Ohio State before exploding for four goals on five shots against Towson. He added one goal against Michigan and is now tied for third on the team – and ranks first among midfielders – with six goals on the year. Crawley is the first Johns Hopkins freshman midfielder to score four goals in a game since Paul Rabil scored four times in a 12-11 come-from-behind win at Syracuse on March 18, 2005.

Second-Longest Game in School History: The triple overtime game against Ohio State in the season-opener ranks as the second-longest game in the history of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse program. The longest game in school history was a four-overtime game against Virginia on March 24, 2001.

In Overtime: Johns Hopkins improved to 20-10 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala with the 10-9 triple overtime victory against Ohio State. The Blue Jays have now won four of their last five overtime games dating back to late in the 2011 season.

State Rivalries: Johns Hopkins improved its record is to 62-8 (.886) under head coach Dave Pietramala in games played against teams from the state of Maryland with the recent 15-8 victory against Towson.
Including the game against the Tigers, the Blue Jays will play six games this season against in-state rivals.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked third in this week’s USILA Preseason Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

More Poll Position: Including this week’s USILA Poll, there have been 413 weekly polls since the inception of the poll in 1973. Amazingly, JHU has been ranked in the top 20 in 411 of those 413 polls. The Blue Jays have been in the top 10 in 384 of the 413 and the top five in 301 of those 413. Johns Hopkins has been ranked number one 104 times since the poll debuted in 1973.

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The Game: Johns Hopkins hits the road for the first time this season as the fifth-ranked Blue Jays make the trip to New Jersey to take on 10th-ranked Princeton. Faceoff is set for noon on Saturday, March 1.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins improved to 3-0 with a 14-5 win against Michigan last Saturday at Homewood Field.
Princeton moved to 2-0 on the year with a 14-8 victory at Manhattan on Tuesday night. The Tigers had opened the season just three days prior with a 12-10 victory at home against Hofstra.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Princeton are meeting for the 84th time in a series that dates to a 3-2 Tiger victory in 1890. The Blue Jays lead the all-time series 55-28. The visiting team is 5-0 in the last five Johns Hopkins-Princeton games played on campus.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Princeton with an all-time record of 936-303-15 (.752). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked fifth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and seventh in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Preseason Poll. Princeton is ranked 10th in the USILA Poll and ninth in the Media Poll.

150 in 200: Dave Pietramala picked up his 150th victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with last week’s 14-5 victory against Michigan. His 150th victory came in his 200th game as the head coach at Homewood. Only Bob Scott, who won 158 games as the head coach at JHU from 1955-74, has won or coached (214) more games that Pietramala at Johns Hopkins.

Back Where it Started: This week’s game at Princeton will be the 201st for Dave Pietramala as the head coach at Johns Hopkins. Princeton was also the site of his first game as the Blue Jays’ head coach as JHU fell to then second-ranked Princeton, 8-4, on March 3, 2001.

New Blue: The Johns Hopkins lineup features six new starters after a large senior class departed Homewood last spring. The six are spread throughout the lineup and include Eric Schneider (G), Rob Enright (D), John Kelly (D), Bronson Kelly(M), Connor Reed (M) and Ryan Brown (A). Brown did start four games at midfield last season, but makes the move to his natural attack position this season, and Enright had five career starts through his first two seasons.

New Blue II: In addition to the six new starters in the lineup, the overall Blue Jay roster is also vastly different than a year ago. Gone are 11 seniors who exhausted their eligibility and in their place are 17 freshmen.

Youth Will be Served: Johns Hopkins is fielding one of the youngest rosters in the nation this season as 17 of the team’s 49 players are freshmen and 29 are either freshmen or sophomores. Only nine of the 49 are seniors and two of those nine – Eric Schneider and Phil Castronova – have an extra year of eligibility and are planning to return for the 2015 season.

For Starters: Entering the 2014 season, the entire 49-man Johns Hopkins roster counted a total of 132 combined career starts to its credit. Of those 132, Rob Guida (38), Jack Reilly (30), Brandon Benn (29) and Wells Stanwick (17) accounted 114, or 86.7%. No other returning player had started more than five games for the Blue Jays. By contrast, last year’s 11-man senior class graduated with a combined 321 starts with six of those 11 players earning 45 or more starts during their careers.

Class Rank: The Blue Jays have gotten balanced production from each of their four classes through three games. Each class has registered at least eight points thus far, with the junior (21 points) and sophomore (19 points) classes leading the way. All four classes have produced at least seven goals through three games.

What it Means in 2014: Despite the loss of the large senior class from last season, the Blue Jays return 67.7% of their goals (109-of-161), 45.7% of their assists (42-of-92) and 59.7% of their points (151-of-253) from last season.

Must be the Speech: There must be something about the speech that head coach Dave Pietramala gives at halftime that is sparking the Blue Jays. Johns Hopkins was tied with Ohio State at the half (2-2) and led Towson by one (6-5), but the Blue Jays outscored the Buckeyes 6-3 in the third quarter and took that up a notch against the Tigers by outscoring TU 7-1 to put the game away. For the year, Johns Hopkins holds a 17-6 scoring margin in the third quarter. In the first, second and four quarters, JHU is a combined +5 in scoring margin (21-16).

Kennedy Shines: Junior Drew Kennedy has gotten off to a quick start at the X for the Blue Jays as he is 40-of-59 (.678) through three games and also has a team-high 27 ground balls thus far. He ranks seventh in the nation in faceoff winning percentage and fourth in ground balls per game (9.0).
Despite missing most of the preseason, Kennedy suited up and fueled Johns Hopkins’ win against Ohio State with a dominating performance as he was 18-of-22 (.818) and grabbed 13 ground balls in the victory. The 18 faceoff wins and 13 GBs are all career highs. In addition, Kennedy’s 18 faceoff wins are the most by a Johns Hopkins player since Mike Poppleton was 20 (of 26) against Stony Brook in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
He came back and won 16-of-23 with 10 ground balls against Towson. After winning just 1-of-6 in the first quarter, he was 15-of-17 over the final three quarters against the Tigers.

Crawley Quick Out of the Gate: Freshman John Crawley scored a key goal in the season opener against Ohio State before exploding for four goals on five shots against Towson. He added one goal against Michigan and now ranked third on the team – and first among midfielders – with six goals on the year. Crawley is the first Johns Hopkins freshman midfielder to score four goals in a game since Paul Rabil scored four times in a 12-11 come-from-behind win at Syracuse on March 18, 2005.

Second-Longest Game in School History: The triple overtime game against Ohio State in the season-openerranks as the second-longest game in the history of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse program. The longest game in school history was a four-overtime game against Virginia on March 24, 2001.

In Overtime: Johns Hopkins improved to 20-10 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala with the 10-9 triple overtime victory against Ohio State. The Blue Jays have now won four of their last five overtime games dating back to late in the 2011 season.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked fifth in this week’s USILA Preseason Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

The Game: Johns Hopkins closes a season-opening three-game home stand by welcoming Michigan to Homewood Field. Faceoff is set for noon on Saturday, February 22.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins improved to 2-0 with a 15-8 win against local rival Towson at Homewood Field last Saturday.
Michigan improved its record to 2-1 on the year with a 14-13 overtime victory at Detroit on Wednesday night. The Wolverines have won two straight entering this week’s game against Johns Hopkins.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Michigan are meeting for just the second time. The Blue Jays took a 17-8 decision in the first meeting last season at Homewood Field.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Michigan with an all-time record of 935-303-15 (.752). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked eighth in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and eighth in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Preseason Poll. Michigan is not ranked in either poll.

In Search of 150: Dave Pietramala enters this week’s game against Michigan with a record of 149-50 in 14 seasons as the head coach at Johns Hopkins. With a win this week he will join Hall of Famer Bob Scott as the only coaches in Johns Hopkins history to reach the 150-win mark. Scott won 158 games during his tenure from 1955-74.

Number 200: This week’s game against Michigan will be the 200th for Dave Pietramala as the head coach at Johns Hopkins.

Second Big Ten Game: Well, kind of. This week’s game against Michigan is the second of three games this season the Blue Jays will play against future Big Ten opponents. Johns Hopkins announced last June that it would join the Big Ten for men’s lacrosse starting with the 2015 season. In addition to the game against the Wolverines, the Blue Jays opened the season against Ohio State and will host Maryland, also a future Big Ten opponent, later this season.

In February: Including the wins over Ohio State and Towson, Johns Hopkins has played just 21 all-time games in the month of February and the Blue Jays are 18-3 in those 21 games. With last week’s victory against the Tigers, the Blue Jays have currently won 14 straight games played in the month of February.

New Blue: Johns Hopkins entered the season with six new starters after a large senior class departed Homewood last spring. The six are spread throughout the lineup and include Eric Schneider (G), Rob Enright (D), John Kelly (D),Bronson Kelly (M), Connor Reed (M) and Ryan Brown (A). Brown did start four games at midfield last season, but makes the move to his natural attack position this season, and Enright had five career starts through his first two seasons.

New Blue II: In addition to the six new starters in the lineup, the overall Blue Jay roster is also vastly different than a year ago. Gone are 11 seniors who exhausted their eligibility and in their place are 17 freshmen.

Youth Will be Served: Johns Hopkins will field one of the youngest rosters in the nation this season as 17 of the team’s 49 players are freshmen and 29 are either freshmen or sophomores. Only nine of the 49 are seniors and two of those nine – Eric Schneider and Phil Castronova – have an extra year of eligibility and are planning to return for the 2015 season.

For Starters: Entering the 2014 season, the entire 49-man Johns Hopkins roster counted a total of 132 combined career starts to its credit. Of those 132, Rob Guida (38), Jack Reilly (30), Brandon Benn (29) and Wells Stanwick (17) accounted 114, or 86.7%. No other returning player had started more than five games for the Blue Jays. By contrast, last year’s 11-man senior class graduated with a combined 321 starts with six of those 11 players earning 45 or more starts during their careers.

Class Rank: The Blue Jays have gotten balanced production from each of their four classes through two games. Each class has registered at least six points thus far, with the junior (14 points) and sophomore (13 points) classes leading the way. The senior (7), sophomore (9) and freshman (6) classes all have at least six goals through two games.

What it Means in 2014: Despite the loss of the large senior class from last season, the Blue Jays return 67.7% of their goals (109-of-161), 45.7% of their assists (42-of-92) and 59.7% of their points (151-of-253) from last season.

Must be the Speech: There must be something about the speech that head coach Dave Pietramala gives at halftime that is sparking the Blue Jays. Johns Hopkins was tied with Ohio State at the half (2-2) and led Towson by one (6-5), but the Blue Jays outscored the Buckeyes 6-3 in the third quarter and took that up a notch against the Tigers by outscoring TU 7-1 to put the game away.

Attack Driven: Johns Hopkins’ starting attack unit of senior Brandon Benn, junior Wells Stanwick and sophomore Ryan Brown will be counted on to lead the way offensively for the Blue Jays this season and the trio has been up to the task thus far as they combined for five goals and seven assists to fuel the 10-9 triple-overtime victory against Ohio State and added nine goals and seven assists against Towson.
Stanwick totaled one goal and a career-high-tying five assists in both games, while Benn totaled two goals and one assist in the opener and four goals on just four shots against the Tigers.
Brown, who moved to attack this season after playing midfield as a freshman, also had two goals and one assist against the Buckeyes and added a career-high four goals and two assists for a personal-best six points against Towson.

Kennedy Shines: Junior Drew Kennedy has gotten off to a quick start at the X for the Blue Jays as he is 34-of-45 (.756) through two games and also has a team-high 23 ground balls thus far.
Despite missing most of the preseason, Kennedy suited up and fueled Johns Hopkins’ win against Ohio State with a dominating performance as he was 18-of-22 (.818) and grabbed 13 ground balls in the victory. The 18 faceoff wins and 13 GBs are all career highs. In addition, Kennedy’s 18 faceoff wins are the most by a Johns Hopkins player since Mike Poppleton was 20 (of 26) against Stony Brook in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
He came back and won 16-of-23 with 10 ground balls against Towson. After winning just 1-of-6 in the first quarter, he was 15-of-17 over the final three quarters against the Tigers.

Crawley Explodes: Freshman John Crawley scored a key goal in the season opener against Ohio State before exploding for four goals on five shots against Towson. Crawley, whose five goals through two games are just one shy of Brandon Benn and Ryan Brown’s team-leading six, is the first Johns Hopkins freshman midfielder to score four goals in a game since Paul Rabil scored four times in a 12-11 come-from-behind win at Syracuse on March 18, 2005.

Second-Longest Game in School History: The triple overtime game against Ohio State in the season-openerranks as the second-longest game in the history of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse program. The longest game in school history was a four-overtime game against Virginia on March 24, 2001.

In Overtime: Johns Hopkins improved to 20-10 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala with the 10-9 triple overtime victory against Ohio State. The Blue Jays have now won four of their last five overtime games dating back to late in the 2011 season.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked eighth in this week’s USILA Preseason Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.